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Video-conferencing: Why It Makes Sense For Your Business

The business world is shrinking. With better transportation between countries, internet and telephone connectivity into parts of the world that were previously untouched and increased globalisation of products and services, there are more opportunities than ever to trade with people in every corner of the globe.

Videoconferencing is the number one tool of the global business. With the chance to meet face-to-face with people on the other side of the world, you can trade with people beyond borders. This technology is developing all the time, with new functions available to make your business life easier and more productive.

Good for global trade

If you’ve got clients in another country, there’s nothing that can beat the benefits you will find from meeting with people face-to-face. As social creatures, we are programmed to form bonds with people by meeting and greeting them. It’s difficult to do this when we’re separated from our business partners by continents and thousands of miles. With the installation of video conferencing equipment, you can turn your meeting room into a place where you can see your customers and, perhaps more importantly, let your customers see you.

When you’re working on projects across distance, the opportunity to discuss the work that you’re doing in a shared space is invaluable. Videoconferencing opens up the chance to see and share products however great the distance. In addition to the cameras that can show the people with whom you’re meeting, high definition cameras can share in exacting detail the finest points of even the fiddliest products so you can discuss refinements and share progress.

Good for travel budgets

When you’re operating a global business, the travel budget is one thing in your balance sheet that historically took a hammering. Getting people and products across borders to discuss and make decisions, seal deals and get signatures on dotted lines has been a costly enterprise and has put up barriers to global trade.

With the spread of availability of video conferencing technology, there’s much less need to send your designers, engineers or sales people haring off across the world to do their jobs. If you’re not shipping a product until a later phase in development, this can reduce not only the costs of shipping but also the time to completion. Getting to the end of the project means you get paid more quickly, which can only be a good thing.

Even if your business doesn’t span many countries, making better use of video conferencing can have an impact on your travel budget. Reducing the requirement for members of your team to travel even 100 miles a month can make an impact on your bottom line, particularly if you’re a small business. Not only does it save on travelling expenses, it also saves the time spent in cars travelling between meetings.

Making best use of the technology

In order to make sure that your team is making best use of your video conferencing equipment, it makes sense to get them properly trained. No business can afford to invest in equipment that doesn’t get used, no matter how time- and money-saving it purports to be.

Although the video conferencing equipment may seem self-explanatory, not everyone is starting from the same level of technical competence. Tailored training can help to make sure that all your team members are equally comfortable with using the equipment, maximising the benefits to your organisation in terms of financial savings and productivity gains.

No matter how tech-savvy some of your employees may be, there’s always going to be something that an experienced trainer can tell them about the kit to help them get more from it. For a relatively small investment, you can get a huge benefit from getting all your staff trained and skilled up in using video conferencing to enhance their work.

Conclusion

Video conferencing opens up opportunities that were previously closed to many businesses, particularly small enterprises. However, in order to get the most benefit from the kit it makes sense to train your staff and make sure they know how to get the best from your investment.